


I Scream

by Pink_hair_revolution



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Background Relationships, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Superfamily, Superfamily (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-04 22:27:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15156962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_hair_revolution/pseuds/Pink_hair_revolution
Summary: Mr. Stark gets hurt. Peter won't let it happen again. Mr. Stark needs to stick around to tell Peter to put his half eaten bowl of brithday cake ice cream away.





	I Scream

Peter didn’t have time to put his bowl in the dishwasher. Mr. Stark keeps a clean house, but Peter left a half eaten bowl of birthday cake ice cream on the counter in the kitchen. A man has his hand inside Mr. Stark’s chest and all Peter can think about is how he let Mr. Stark down by not putting his half eaten bowl of birthday cake ice cream in the dishwasher before he had to suit up. 

A flash of metal flew past Peter’s head and hit the man with his hand in Mr. Stark’s chest, square in the back. It bounced off with a dull thud and boomeranged right back to the owner behind him. 

“Move Spiderman, get high and web him up,” if anybody else had said ‘get high’ to Peter he would have stopped everything he was doing and just stared, dead internally. But Captain America was telling him to ‘get high’. Captain America was giving him orders, but Peter’s mind went right back to that damned bowl of half eaten birthday cake ice cream. He didn't even like birthday cake ice cream. But Steve, or rather Captain America when they were dressed up, had bought it for Mr. Stark’s birthday because Mr. Stark had offhandedly mentioned that he had never tried it before, and Peter was a sucker for celebrations.

Right, get high. Peter shot his web towards the roof of the building next to them, yanking and using the momentum to pull himself up. Get high, get high, get high. 

Ok, he’s high. Next Steve told him to web him up. Web the man with his hand inside Mr. Stark’s chest until he can’t move and he pulls his hand out of Mr. Stark’s chest. Web him up.

Peter shot his web towards the man. Missing the first two shots. Come on spiderman, focus. A third shot. Hit the man directly in his face. The man removed his hand from Mr. Stark’s chest and grabbed at his face.

“Great job, Spiderman!” Cap threw his shield and it hit the man where the web had landed. The man tipped backwards, knocked out cold.

Peter jumped down landing next to the man, Cap was already on him. He flipped him and Peter webbed up his hands and feet so he couldn’t move. Once the man was in no danger of running off, Cap rushed over to Mr. Stark.

“Tony! Tony, are you ok?” Cap was frantic. Peter was stunned. The half eaten bowl of birthday cake ice cream would have been more animated than him at the moment. 

“Tony, I need you to wake up. Please.” it came out as more of a sob than anything. Mr. Stark did not respond.

Peter stared. Peter stared at Mr. Stark’s mangled chest piece. Peter hyper focused on the light that was no longer there. Peter couldn’t move.

“Tony, Ironman. Please.” something inside Peter broke when Cap said those words. It crumbled, along with his knees. He fell to Mr. Stark’s side.

“Mr. Stark…” Peter knocked on the mangled chest piece. “I left a bowl of half eaten birthday cake ice cream on the counter. I need you to not be mad. Actually I need you to wake up and you can be mad all you want, as long as you wake up.” He knocked again.

There was a flicker. Of light and of hope in Peter’s chest. He knocked again. It flickered again. Cap knocked harder. The light burned on.

“Holy shit, please.” Peter grabbed Mr. Stark’s shoulders.

The light stayed on. And Mr. Stark gasped.

Cap threw his arms around Mr. Stark’s middle. 

“Woah,” Mr. Stark gasped again. “Let up a little there buddy, gonna squeeze the breath right back out of me.”

“Tony, I swear to God. I thought you were dead. We thought you were dead.” Cap motioned to Peter.

“Hey kiddo, did great. Didn’t see most of it, but you’re still alive so you did great.”

Peter was not crying. He wasn’t crying, but there could be dust in his eyes. Both eyes. Lots of dust.

“So I heard something about a bowl of half eaten birthday cake ice cream left on my counter?” Peter laughed. “You know that’s how we get ants.”

Mr. Stark was taken to medical. ‘The best doctors Tony can buy’ was how Steve put it. Peter wanted to go with him, but there wasn’t enough room in the back of the ambulance. Too many wires and things trying to keep the light in Mr. Stark’s chest on.

The man was taken to prison or wherever the bad guys go after being taken down by the good guys.

“Let’s go home,” Steve rested his hand on Peter’s shoulder and pulled him along. 

+

There was a kind of deafening silence back at the Avengers mansion. The half eaten bowl of birthday cake ice cream was covered in ants when Peter got back to it. Mr. Stark was right but Mr. Stark is alive. 

Him and Steve were the only ones home. The others all out on missions or personal stuff that Peter didn’t know about. He could use some humor from the bird men. Or god, a warm hug from the adoptive spider mother he never knew he needed. Even the way Bruce ignored everything and kept speaking shop with Mr. Stark, would make him feel infinitely better. Mr. Stark would make him feel better. Mr. Stark safe and healthy, sitting in his lab working on the Mark 50 something would make him feel so much better. 

The lab. The lab would make him feel better. The lab was practically an extension of Mr.Stark. Being in there was the next best thing to being right next to him.

The light was already on when he got in there. Steve was lying curled up on the couch in the corner. The couch that Mr. Stark specifically put in there for Steve, because Steve liked to come in and draw or just sit with Mr. Stark.

“Oh, sorry. I’ll just... leave.” Peter looked at the ground and turned.

Steve shot up, “No, it’s ok. I just… honestly I just miss him. This is the only place that is just so Tony… I just want him to be ok and to come back to us soon.”

“Yeah,” Peter couldn’t say much. It felt wrong.

“He’ll be ok, Peter.”

“Yeah,” was the only thing he could say without tearing up again. Scratch that, it wasn’t working. “I just…” the tears started again, welling up in the corners of his eyes. “I just could have done more, I could have stopped that man.” he hiccuped. The tears were rolling hard now.

Steve shot to his feet and pulled Peter in for a hug. It wasn’t the first Captain America hug he had ever received. But it was most certainly the best and most needed one. 

Peter cried into Steve’s shirt. 

“I’ve just lost so many parents,” he hiccuped again. “I can’t lose anymore.”

“I know,” Steve patted the back of his head. “He’ll be ok, just watch in three days time Tony will be up on his feet and yelling at Dum-E not to make a mess.” Steve chuckled.

It was sincere. It helped. 

Dum-E was in the far corner of the room. It felt wrong. He was usually animatedly running around and whirring in Peter’s face. Jarvis must have told him.

“We should,” hiccup, “make sure the kids are ok.” Peter needed to take care of Mr. Stark’s things, his kids, his bots.

“Yeah,” Steve let him go and watched as Peter walked to Dum-E. Peter laid his hand on Dum-E’s main strut, comforting. “Yeah, we definitely need to make sure Tony’s kids are ok.” Steve said to himself. 

+

It was about five days before Mr. Stark was well enough to come back to the mansion. Five days of Peter falling asleep in the chair in the corner of Mr. Stark’s hospital room. Five days of MJ sending him stupid memes to make him feel better. Five days of this crushing weight of defeat on his chest. Five days of Cap mother henning him, making him eat three square meals a day and get at least 8 hours of sleep.

It’s like once Mr. Stark was put in the hospital, Steve had no one to take care of. So Peter let him. Peter let him make breakfast for the two of them. ‘A healthy breakfast is the best way to start the day’ he remembered one of those Captain America infomercials in school. The lamest thing at the time, but now the memory was a comfort. He let Steve put a blanket over him when he was napping on the couch. He let Steve ask about his summer plans and friends. ‘What is a meme’ was a very fun question to answer. And once Mr. Stark got home he didn’t stop, he just kept on taking care of the both of them. 

But Mr. Stark didn’t make it easy, he tried to act his normal self. He would boss Steve around and try to tinker with things.

“Do you know what bedrest means?!” Steve shouted from the other room. Peter was on the couch in the living room watching Voltron on Netflix. 

“Come on, I’m bored! I can’t just update some of the Mark 48’s software?” Tony shouted back.

Peter saw Steve rush into the living room and grab a pillow from the couch, turning on his heels and rushing back “Yeah, if you can do it from your bed!”

“Steve, come on.” Mr. Stark whined. “I’m in pain, I need something to take my mind off of it.”

“Here, it’s time to take your meds,” Steve said back to him. 

‘That’s not what I meant,” was the response.

It went on like this for a few days, Mr. Stark eventually settled down once Peter brought some stuff into his room to tinker with. Peter was like his gopher. “Get me the… yeah that thing,” Mr. Stark would say.

They worked on the Mark 48’s software updates together. And then some. Peter started bringing in the hardware as well, until eventually Mr. Stark had the entire Mark 48 hanging in his room. He wanted to help. He wanted Mr. Stark to be ok again more.

Even with the upgrades and the freedom from boredom, Mr. Stark was still visibly in pain. He would grab his chest if he reached too high, or get exhausted after waving his arms around for just a few minutes. Peter tried to do as much as he could but there was only so much he could do to prevent the older man from hurting himself.

Peter needed a nap, he was so exhausted. But he needed to help Mr. Stark, he needed him to go back to normal. The fight between his bodily functions and his brain was just too much. However, the exhaustion won out and he fell asleep on the couch in Mr. Stark’s room.

It had been so many days of ignoring his phone. Michelle and Ned texted him every day to make sure he was ok, but after receiving so many ‘it’s all good’ texts, they couldn’t do much more.

And Steve had looked so much worse for wear than he had, so he couldn’t complain. But he could try and get some sleep in. Maybe just for a minute.

+

“Tony just admit it,” Peter woke to Steve standing over Mr. Stark’s bed.

“I will do no such thing, I am perfectly fine.” Mr. Stark responded.

“The doctor said it would be a few weeks till you could even stand on your own, let alone get back in your suit.” The fiery speech had Peter pretending he was asleep.

“I’m fine, see!” Mr. Stark let out a gasp, he was obviously not fine. “Well that doesn’t count.” Peter assumed he tried to show Steve that he could lift his arms, but it had only been a little over a week since the incident.

“Tony, please. You’ve run Peter dry, you’re going to hurt yourself. Or him.”

“He’s ok, just not used to the long hours of the engineering process. He’ll get used to it.”

“Tony he’s a kid still. If you would calm down and just stay in bed without all of these upgrades and whatever, he could still act like a kid and he wouldn’t be worried about you hurting yourself.” Steve’s concern was apparent, each word sounding as exasperated as he felt. 

“You want me to just sit here? I could be making modifications, I could be updating and making sure something like this doesn’t happen again!” That last bit came out as more of a sob. Peter’s breath caught in his throat.

“Tony,” he could feel Steve’s concern.

“No, because what if it had been the kid!? What if it was you? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that man had… If that man had hurt you guys.” Peter couldn’t breath.

He wasn’t meant to hear this. But he did. And it tore his heart open. He didn’t want Mr. Stark thinking this was his own fault, he didn’t want any of this to be happening to him. Mr. Stark had given him so much and deserved so much in return.

Peter would make sure this kind of thing wouldn’t happen again. Not to Mr. Stark. Even if Peter had to take his place, it wasn’t going to happen, not to Tony.

Peter wanted to get up and tell them not to worry, that he would be better. But Jarvis interrupted with a call to action. Avengers Assemble time.

He hopped up immediately and ran out the door to his suit. Steve and Mr. Stark staring after him.

+

Some small time bank robbers decided to take an entire bank hostage. The cops had called in the avengers, or whoever happened to be around, to help them out.

Tony was obviously forced to sit this one out, much to his chagrin. But Steve was there, and Nat had shown up out of nowhere.

“Hey kid, how are you holding up?” Nat whispered into the comm link that connected them, as the two of them crawled through the air vents into the building.

“Oh I’m good, gotta be better for Mr. Stark. Make sure these guys don’t get away and hurt anybody else.”

“How is Tony?” she asked.

“He’s not doing so hot at the moment, but he’ll get better. Steve said he’s got the best doctors Tony can buy.” Peter laughed. “But you know Mr. Stark, he just wants to work.”

“Don’t I know Tony. Let’s wrap things up here and I’ll go kick some sense into him.” 

The two of them dropped from the air vents and took out two of the guys, Nat swung from one guy onto the third taking both of them down. While Peter took out the fourth with his web shooters.

Nat was checking on people while Peter webbed up the four suspects, when a masked man walked out from the back offices. A very shiny semi-automatic in his hands, pointed directly at Peter. Peter’s heart dropped from his chest and all he could do was stare.

“Now listen here…” the man was cut off with the bounce of Steve’s shield. It hit the floor, bounced up and knocked him flat out.

“Good timing,” Nat said.

“Guess we’ll never know what he wanted us to listen to,” Steve laughed.

“I was hoping for a little Africa by Toto,” Peter smiled, hiding a world of panic behind his nervous laugh.

“Are we sure him and Tony aren’t related?” Nat rolled her eyes at Steve.

The robbery was wrapped up and the suspects taken away. Peter was kicking himself that he had forgotten about the 5th person. And freaking out on the inside that he froze.

“He could have hurt somebody, I should have checked before…” he was cut off by a hug from Nat.

“We can’t be in all places at once hun, Steve was here. This is why we stick together.” She pulled back and smiled at him.

“I’ll do better next time,” he mumbled.

+

“Nat! My favorite Russian spy.” Mr. Stark was sitting up in bed with a tablet in his hands, and two on each of his sides.

“Tony, if it isn’t my favorite idiot who keeps trying to get himself killed,” she rolled her eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh you know, bedridden and in pain. The usual. Steve won’t let me move, I can feel the bed sores setting in already.”

“Ha ha,” Steve rolled his eyes, as he repositioned Mr. Stark’s pillows. “You squirm too much to get bed sores.”

“I hear you're being a pain in the ass,” Nat said. 

“To be fair, I am usually a pain in the ass.” Mr. Stark countered.

“Yes but this poor child needs some rest and so do you” she threw her hand back grabbing the front of Peter’s shirt and pulling him forward into a harmless headlock. “Look at him, he’s so thin you can see right through him.”

“A-actually Steve has made sure I eat three meals a day,” Peter spoke up.

“See! Practically starving! He’s delirious.” She let him go and put her hand on Mr. Stark’s face, leaning in. “Let the kid be a kid, and stop making life difficult for your live in husband.” she whispered to him.

“Fine, but on one condition,” he smiled at her. “I wanna redesign your suit.”

“For… sake,” she censored herself. “Fine but not until after your bedrest is up.”

“Deal!”

+

It had been three weeks since the incident. Mr. Stark could finally lift his arms above his head with a little help. Peter and Steve had been on six more Avengers calls together. Other Avengers moving in and out, but the two of them constant.

Peter learned Steve’s fighting style, and Steve learned Peter’s. They were a good team, Peter ‘getting high’ and cap fighting close combat. The only thing missing was the reckless way Mr. Stark would fly in and solve half of their problems in one fell swoop.

After the latest Avengers call, Steve took him aside and fixed him with a very serious stare.

“What’s up?” Peter felt a little concerned.

“Peter, I just want you to know that nothing that happened to Tony was your fault.”

It was kind of a kick to the chest. He panicked. “Why would you say that?” Oh god, Mr. Stark must be telling Steve that it was all Peter’s fault. Steve is just trying to soften the blow.

“You’ve been taking more hits, it feels like you’re trying to make up for what happened to Tony. But there’s nothing to make up for, it wasn’t your fault.” Peter could hear the words Steve was saying but it felt like water was rushing into his ears and somebody was pressing on his chest.

“Peter, are you ok?”

Peter’s vision started going black before he could say no. His knees buckled under him, and Steve was the only thing that kept him from hitting the floor, hard.

“Woah, woah. Hey Peter, it’s ok. Can I get a medic here!?” Steve shouted over his head. “Peter, listen to me. Peter.” Steve laid him down and swept his hair out of his eyes.

“I’m ok, I’m ok.” Peter said weakly.

“Peter, what happened? Are you hurt? Did you get hit?” Steve was so concerned, but Peter hadn’t been injured he doesn’t think.

“I’m ok,” the medic dropped down beside him, and started checking his blood pressure. 

“No visible wounds, blood pressure is a little high, how are you feeling spiderman?” Oh God, his own name sounded like a mockery now.

“Ma name’s Peter. I’m ok, just light headed. I’m fine really.” Peter tried to sit up, Steve holding him up from the back.

“Peter, do you have a history of anxiety?” the medic gave him the most sincere look, he really wanted to help.

“I don’t know, I don’t think so,” he lied, like liars do. He’s been a big ball of anxiety since he got the Spidey powers. Everything seems like a problem now. Mr. Stark was the start of a three week long spiral.

“It sounds to me like you just had a panic attack. Here, sit all the way up. I’ll get you some water.” The medic left and Steve gave him the most pitiful look Peter had ever seen.

“I’m fine, I really am.” Another lie.

“Peter, maybe we can talk once we get home. I know you heard mine and Tony’s conversation a couple weeks ago. I just wanted to make sure you were ok.”

“I just want to take a nap.” Peter whined. “I’m fine Steve, I am.”

Peter knew what his problem was. He was overworking himself. He was overworking himself to make up for the fact that he was worried sick about Mr. Stark. The only father figure left in his life, that had voluntarily taken up the position. He was overworking himself because he thought that maybe he could get better at this stuff. Maybe he could be better for Mr. Stark. Make sure nothing like that happened again.

+

Back at the mansion, Mr. Stark was passed out in his room. Peter did his best to weisel past Steve and head straight to the couch in the corner of Mr. Stark’s room, knowing full well Steve wouldn’t come in and disturb Mr. Stark’s sleep.

What Peter was not prepared for was Mr. Stark not actually being asleep. 

“Phew, he’s gone right? I can open my eyes?”

“Uh yeah…” Peter said. 

“Oh thank god, I love Steve I really do, but damn he just gets onto you about everything.”

“You love Steve?” Peter smiled at him.

“Hey now, we’re not doing this middle school bs. Steve is a great friend. Who happens to be very attractive.” Mr. Stark’s face was tinged pink. “Why are you in here anyways?”

“Uh, was just gonna take a nap.” and escape Steve as well, he didn’t add.

“Didn’t I install a room for you? That has a bed? Hell a bunch of other things as well, the bathtub would probably be more comfortable than the couch in the corner of my room. You avoiding Steve too?” Mr. Stark could see right through him.

“A little yeah. He just wants to talk about things that I don’t want to talk about.” That was vague enough of an answer that he didn’t have to explain himself and it fulfilled any sort of questioning…

“What things?” or not.

“I don’t want to talk about them,” Peter said pointedly. 

“Ok, well do those things have anything to do with the conversation me and Steve were having the other day, while we thought you were asleep but you clearly weren’t?” Mr. Stark picked up one of the tablets next to him and started messing with it, giving Peter a reprieve from having to look directly at him and answer.

“Maybe,” Peter spoke softly. That same pressure on his chest came back, the rushing in his ears hadn’t started but he could feel his body start to panic.

“Hey, it’s ok kid.” Mr. Stark made to get out of his bed, but once Peter saw him attempt to move he immediately ran to his side and stopped him.

“You feel a lot of pressure on your chest?” Mr. Stark asked softly. “First time it happened you heard water rushing into your ears and you couldn’t quite catch your breath.”

Peter stared, not sure what to say. How can Mr. Stark know exactly what was happening to him?

“Hey,” Mr. Stark made sure to look him in the eyes. “It’s ok, I know this is a lot. You can take a break, you don’t have to go so hard because I’m not there.”

“I… I…” This was becoming too much, the pressure increased, his stomach started going south. Peter couldn’t let Mr. Stark know that he couldn’t handle this. That every time he got a call to action he panicked and always wanted to hide but somehow Steve was always right next to him and he couldn’t say no.

“Hey, breath.” Mr. Stark put his hands on Peter’s shoulders. “Take a deep breath in, hold it for 15 seconds and then let it out slowly.” Peter did as he was told, the pressure eased up a little bit after a few breaths.

“I can do this,” Peter said in the smallest voice. “I… I can. I just. I just can’t do everything you did. I’m not you, I can’t do the superhero thing as well as you do.” The dust was back, his damn eyes couldn’t get a break.

“Peter, I never expected you to take over for me. I wouldn’t put that on anybody.” Mr. Stark paused giving Peter the most worried look. “I never meant to put any of this worry on you.”

“It’s not your fault. Mr. Stark you didn’t do anything, I’m just useless. Can’t even get my priorities straight. I just wanted you not to worry about if the city is being taken care of, if Steve is being taken care of. I wanted to make sure everything was the way you left it.” Peter breathed in sharply, “And I didn’t want anything like this to happen again. I don’t know what I’d do if your light didn’t come back on.”

“Peter…” Mr. Stark started to say as Steve rushed into the room.

“There’s been a prison break.”

+

You know as days go, today wasn’t all that bad. Having two panic attacks earlier on and then having to face the man who was ultimately the cause of said panic attacks… well Peter has had worse.

He could feel that pressure on his chest again. The rushing water in his ears. Now was not the time. Honestly if his body could stop betraying him altogether that would be great.

“Hey webhead,” Mr. Stark spoke in his ear.

“What? Mr. Stark please tell me you didn’t get out of bead for this.” Peter was already panicking enough he did not need to add Tony into the mix.

“Calm down, Spiderman. I just hacked into the comm link. I want to make sure you guys don’t get hurt, this guy is bad news.”

“Ok, but I don’t think Steve is going to be very happy knowing you’re involved.”

“That’s why we won’t tell him. I just want to be able to deploy some sentry bots if I need to.” It did not sound like deploying sentry bots was his only play here. 

“Ok…” sounds fake but ok.

“Tell me what you’re seeing. And don’t get too close, that fucker is a mini Magneto.”

Peter was up high, like Cap would always order. Steve, Nat, and Sam were all down below attempting to stave off this guys’ goons. It was about ten to four, not exactly a fair fight, but Peter figured they could handle it. Hopefully without him, because he was not feeling this fight right now.

“Uh… Falcon, Widow, and Cap are down below fighting about ten prisoners.”

“Any sign of magnet hands?” Peter could hear typing in the background. And Friday asking to clear a flight pattern.

“No sign… Mr. Stark if you’re planning on coming out here I need to strongly suggest you don’t” the ‘please’ evident in Peter’s tone.

“I would never,” Peter could hear the smile in Mr. Stark’s voice.

Falcon was grounded. His suit taken out by a man with stretchy arms. He was back to back with Cap in the fray of villains. Peter repeated all of this to Mr. Stark.

“Alright kid, you think you can web um up from above?”

“I can try, but to be totally honest with you Mr. Stark I’m kind of freaking out right now.” Peter’s breath started coming quicker and his head was going a bit light.

“Breath, remember what I told you? It’ll clear your head for a minute and if afterwards you don’t think you can do it, that’s perfectly ok too. Just let me know and I’ll deploy the sentries.”

“Ok,” Peter breathed.

He silenced the comm link. He didn’t want Mr. Stark to hear him freaking out any more. 

Breath in. One, two, three, four. Peter can do this. He’s Spiderman. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. He can’t do this. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. The others were counting on him. Steve was counting on him. Mr. Stark was probably going to get out of bed and hurt himself if he didn’t do this. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen.

Peter let out the breath he was holding and tuned into the teams’ frequency.

“Steve, Mr. Stark is planning on suiting up and heading over. Go stop him, I’ll take over here.”

“What?! Peter how do you…” 

Peter cut him off, “Go!”

Peter dropped down into the fray, webbing up each villain. They dropped like flies as Steve made a break for it.

“Nat, pull up on our flank!” Peter shouted. He sounded like Steve right now, he was amazed.

Each villain was webbed to the asphalt and couldn’t move a muscle. The relief that flooded Peter’s chest was interrupted by a large explosion down the street. 

“I got it, you guys make sure these bad guys can’t get away.” Peter shot his web and swung himself up.

The explosion down the street came from a local bank. The same bank that Peter had thwarted bank robbers at earlier that month.

“What the hell is wrong with this bank?!” he yelled into the open side.

His wrists pulled away from him and his web snapped. He hit the floor with a thud and continued dragging towards a man standing in the vault area.

“Just a little diamond worth 4.2 billion dollars,” a creaky, dusty voice spat at him.

“Let me go,” Peter shouted, struggling with the inability to move his arms.

“Oh no, I’m going to enjoy ripping your arms off. Just like how I enjoyed pulling the shrapnel from Iron Man’s chest.” That was it. The very last thread in Peter’s mind unraveled. Peter was done letting this guy fuck with him. Fuck with his family.

Peter aimed his web shooter in the man’s face and shot him dead center. The man let go and pulled his hands up to his face, just like the last time. But this time, Peter kept shooting his web. And kept shooting. Until the man was buried under a mountain of web.

“I’m tired of this! I’m tired of letting you get the upper hand! I’m tired of being scared of you!” Peter rushed forward and removed the contraptions from the man’s hands, rendering him powerless. “You won’t be needing these anymore.” Peter threw the contraptions to the ground and stepped on them.

The man screamed. And cursed. And screamed some more.

Peter was tired. He just wanted a nap. And maybe more ice cream.

+

Mr. Stark wasn’t actually getting up to come help. He had planned to activate the sentry and remote control it from his bed. 

Steve was still mad at him. ‘Worried sick, is all,’ was how he described it.

“Hey kid, heard you broke the bad guys cool toys.” Mr. Stark laughed as Peter walked into his room.

“Yeah, I figured we didn’t need those out there any more, so who knows what, could get to them.” Peter collapsed onto the couch in the corner of the room for the millionth time that month.

“Also heard you ratted me out to Steve,” he smirked at Peter.

Before Peter could say anything Steve spoke up. “Uh uh, no. Peter did the right thing. If you had activated that sentry bot like you had planned you would have hurt yourself. I’m not dealing with another injury for another month.”

“Aw come on Stevie, you don’t want to wait on me hand and foot, for another month?” Mr. Stark batted his eyelashes and gave Steve the brightest smile.

“You guys are gross,” Nat spoke up from her chair next to the bed. “Peter hun, how are you feeling?”

Tired was the truth, “Good,” was what he said. To be honest good was how he felt too. In the relieved sort of way. 

“Yeah?” Nat slid onto the couch next to him and gave him such a warm hug. “I’m proud of you spiderling. You handled that situation really well.”

“Thanks, Nat.” 

“Except he snitched!” Mr. Stark yelled.

“I’m getting some ice cream,” Steve got up from his corner of Mr. Stark’s bed and leaned over and kissed Mr. Stark’s forehead.

They both kind of went still, a blush crept up the side of Steve’s neck, while Mr. Stark’s eyes went wide.

“About damn time,” Nat smirked.

“Uh… Steve? What was that?” Mr. Stark didn’t move.

Steve hovered above him, kind of just staring at the bed. “A… a kiss. Yeah.”

“Ok… and why did you kiss me?” 

“Um... “ Steve just kept staring.

“Because he likes you you big dumb idiot. Damn,” Nat wasn’t having this fumbling around stuff.

Mr. Stark blushed. Which takes a lot. Mr. Stark never blushes. “Is that true?”

“I… I, uh…. Yeah. Yes I do.” God this second hand embarrassment was killing Peter.

“Oh,” was all that Mr. Stark could conjure up at the moment.

“I… I tried to take care of you. I couldn’t stop that man from hurting you and I feel just awful about that.” Steve’s famous word vomit, when he gets nervous it just keeps coming. “I figured the least I could do is take care of you and your things and your kid.”

“Hold on, kid?” Peter was the one who asked. Mr. Stark has a son?

Nat smiled, “He means you dummy.”

“Oh,” was the only thing he could conjure up at the moment.

“You all love each other! Damn, now can you all hug it out? And Steve kiss Tony properly already.” Nat just was not into the whole patience thing.

Steve looked at Tony, to make sure he could. And he just… just.

It was nice. In the ‘your parents are kissing’ kind of way. In the, ‘they’re hopelessly in love’ kind of way. In the, ‘I thought this was already a thing’ kind of way.

“Alright… yeah,” Mr. Stark pulled away from Steve. “How about that ice cream?” he smirked.

“I swear to God Tony,” Steve stormed out. Mr. Stark could not look prouder.

+

“Hey Peter,” Steve’s face came into focus as Peter desperately clinged to the only bit of sleep he’d had in a while. “I’m sorry to wake you.”

Steve had the most pitiful look on his face. Peter shot up, “What is it?! What’s wrong?” The panic came back.

“Nothing, nothing’s wrong,” Steve raised his hand in a calm down motion. “I just brought you some birthday cake ice cream. But, now I kind of want to talk to you about something else.”

The panic left Peter’s stomach and dread settled in its place. “What about?”Peter asked.

“I’m sorry if I scared you the other day. I just wanted to make sure you were ok. That you weren’t shouldering all of this on your own.” Steve had kind eyes. It was awful.

“I’m fine Steve,” Peter said.

“Except you’re not,” Steve cut him off, raising his voice just a little bit. “And you don’t have to talk to me about it if you don’t want. But you need to talk to somebody, kid. So… so you don’t go insane.”

Peter just stared.

“It’s ok to feel this way sometimes, but when it persists for this long... “ Steve trailed off. “There’s no shame in it,” he added.

“Oh,” was all that Peter could muster.

“Me, and Tony, and almost every other Avenger has a therapist on speed dial. Clint has Agent Coulson,” Steve laughed, and then went right back to serious. “I know how hard this can be, Tony is a really great guy, and it was hard to watch all of that happen to him. But he’s back, or rather coming back.”

“Yeah,” Peter mumbled. He stared at the birthday cake ice cream in Steve’s hand.

“And it helps to work this stuff out,” Steve said.

“Yeah,” Peter mumbled again.

“And I’m done lecturing you for now, so here’s your half-melted bowl of birthday cake ice cream.”

“Thanks,” Peter mumbled again. His panic was telling him that Steve means well but he shouldn’t listen to a word he says. So Peter took a deep breath. And counted.

Steve got up to leave, but Peter grabbed his arm, then let out his breath, and hugged Steve.

“I’m sorry, I will talk to somebody. It has been really hard, especially because I had not just one parent, but two on the line. You have no idea how much it means to me…” here come the waterworks. “Everything you did for me.” Peter couldn’t even get it out. 

Steve hugged him back fiercely. “I know Peter. I know.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to my best friend. I will miss you.


End file.
